ALABAMA. 



13 



by a Democrat. It is one of many of like import, 

 and is evidently intended to appeal to the well- 

 known superstitious dread of the most ignorant col- 

 orod people : 



" WARNING ! 



[A picture of a coffin.] 



The in v iiible monarch rules in Sumter, and watches 

 nigs of his people from a little star above you. 

 All nijiu't T!<,' white und black, will take warning 

 Jr. mi tin- tato of Billings andlvey. They were killed 

 !>v unknown hands, which will never be known. 

 1*11086 hands will destroy again. Colored men, who 

 want to live in peace and be protected, can do it by 

 inquiring where they can sign the white man's, con- 

 stitution. ' Inquire,' and our monarch will send 

 a man to you, who will have the ' roll.' Never 

 vote the Radical ticket again. Sign, and live. Re- 

 fuse, and die. Signed at the Spirit-Land, at the hour 

 of death, and by the graves ot the dead. 



V. V. . . V." 



Mr. Hays cites two cases in Pickens County, 

 where he declares outrages are frequent, but, 

 "from the terrorism existing in that locality, 

 only an occasional murder leaks out." He 

 says: 



In Carrollton, Pickens County, .four colored men, 

 who were supposed to be " emissaries," sent to post 

 the negroes on their rights, were taken the third week 

 in August from their cabins and hung by the road- 

 side. This deed was perpetrated in open daylight 

 by a body of uninasked white men. On August 20, 

 1874, the bodies of three m-en, two colored and one 

 white, were discovered floating down the Tombigbee 

 River, lashed to some logs. When found the bodies 

 were badly decomposed, and their personal identity 

 to this day -remains undiscovered. The white man 

 had a placard pinned to his neck saying, " This is 

 the way we treat Dutch niggers," evidently alluding 

 to the nativity of the man, who seemed to be a Ger- 

 man. The other two were placarded, " To Mobile, 

 with the compliments of Pickens County." 



Instances are given of peaceable meetings 

 of colored persons having been broken up in 

 Hall, Russell, and Coffee Counties, resulting 

 in the last-named county in the death of two, 

 and the wounding of six colored persons. The 

 disorders in Choctaw County are thus speci- 

 fied: 



On or about the 1st of August the newspapers of 

 Alabama were filled with accounts of large bodies 

 of armed negroes congregating in Choctaw County 

 for the purpose of commencing a war upon the 

 whites. Of course the excitement was intense. Hun- 

 dreds of whites from different sections swiftly hurried 

 to the scene of the supposed conflict, but when they 

 arrived no armed negroes could be found. Yet 

 something must be done to make an example. So a 

 company of whites ambushed a party of negroes re- 

 turning from church, killed ten and wounded thir- 

 teen. Again. Green Lewis, colored route agent on 

 the Selma & Meridian Railroad, was warned that if 

 he continued to run on that road they would murder 

 him. I had his route changed to save his life. 

 Again, Hon. Joseph H. Speed, Superintendent of 

 Public Instruction, was attacked and beaten by a 

 mob at Marion, Ala., because he had that day made 

 a Republican speech in the town. Hons. Adam C. 

 Felder and William H. Scawell, two prominent white 

 Republicans, were shot at in Greenville, Ala., some 

 night in July last, on their return from the court- 

 . where they had been making Republican 

 speeches. They were also "rotten-egged" and 

 otherwise insulted. Full particulars of this outrage 

 were published at the time. W. A. Lipscomb, be- 

 longing to one of the most reputable families in the 



South, was found dead in the public road in Maren- 

 go County lout week. lie was shot to death, and 

 was an earnest Republican. 



In concluding his statement, Mr. Hays says : 



These, my dear sir, are a few of the " troubles " 

 in Alabama, for the suppression of which I, in com- 

 pany with others, have asked the intervention of the 

 Federal Government. No one regrets that such 

 action has been deemed necessary more than my Belt'. 

 Born, educated, and living all my life in the teouth, 

 I thought I know the feelings and the passions of 

 our people. Up to this time not a single white Dem- 

 ocrat has been murdered, outraged, or otherwise mal- 

 treated in any way in the State of Alabama. The kill- 

 ing has all been on one side. The reports even of our 

 sufferings have been held back and kept back from 

 the people of the North. The agents of the Southern 

 Associated Press alone furnish news to your papers. 

 Every agent of this association in Alabama (and 

 in the South generally) is a rebel and a Democrat. 

 Our views, speeches, platforms, writings, and actions 

 generally, are garbled and missent to deceive the 



Eeople or the North, and convince them that the 

 outh is being plundered by adventurers ; that cor- 

 ruption and infamy stalk forth with monstrous ini- 

 quity in all our public places, and that every man 

 who dares to raise his voice for the principles of Re- 

 publicanism is a felon, and unworthy to walk the 

 earth on which he lives. All these things, and more, 

 too, have we borne in silence. 



This statement of Mr. Hays was bitterly de- 

 nounced by the opposition press. In regard to 

 some of the outrages specified, it was denied 

 that they were committed, while it was stout- 

 ly maintained that politics had nothing to do 

 with any of them. On the 1st of October the 

 Democratic and Conservative State Executive 

 Committee issued an address intended as a 

 reply to the statements made by Hays, and 

 " for the purpose of repelling the slanders cir- 

 culated against the good people of this State 

 for political purposes." Before proceeding to 

 notice specifically the allegations made by that 

 gentleman, the committee say : 



1. That we were selected as the Executive Com- 

 mittee of our party in a full convention assembled 

 here on the 29th day of July last, and thus we are 

 the legitimate representatives of our party. 



2. That the Republican or Radical party in Ala- 

 bama is composed of about nine-tenths negroes and 

 one-tenth whites. 



8. That the Democratic and Conservative party is 

 composed almost exclusively of the white people of 

 the State, embracing a majority of the people. 



4. That, to show the spirit which governed and 

 now governs our party, we quote a paragraph from 

 the address of our Executive Committee issued on 

 the 27th day of August, 1874 : 



" We especially urge upon you carefully to avoid 

 all injuries to others while you are attempting to 

 preserve vour own rights. Let peace not only pre- 

 vail, but let our people avoid all just cause of com- 

 plaint. Turmoil and strife, with those who oppose 

 us in this contest, will only weaken the moral rorce 

 of our efforts. Let us avoid all personal conflicts ; 

 and, if these should be forced upon us, let us only 

 act in that line of just self-defense which is recog- 

 nized and provided for by the laws of the land. We 

 could not please our enemies better than by becom- 

 ing parties to conflicts of violence, and thus furnish 

 '- pretexts for asking the interference 



them 



of Federal power in our domestic affairs. Let us so 

 act that all shall see, and that all whose opinions are 

 entitled to any respect shall admit, that ours is a 

 party of peace, and that we only seek to preserve 



